Hi everyone I'm rather a newbie at this, so I apologise in advance for what might be a "dumb" question! I've discovered the following information in the Index to the Captains Registers of Lloyd's of London, about my great-grandfather: DEFRIEZ, William Webb b.London 1838 C22935 London 1864 vol.4 1864-73; vol.18 1874-76; vol.31 no voyages listed I certainly get that he was born in London in 1838 - is the next bit his licence number or something like that? What sort of information is available in the "volumes" listed? I would appreciate any help interpreting the details - thank you! Kind regards Eunice Queensland, Australia

Hello Eunice DEFRIEZ, William Webb b.London 1838 Yes, his place and year of birth C22935 London 1864 His master's certificate number, gained by examination in London in 1864 (ie at age 26-ish) vol.4 1864-73; vol.18 1874-76; vol.31 no voyages listed His name appears in these 3 volumes of Lloyd's Captains register, now kept at the London Metropolitan archives. They have not been scanned or filmed, as far as I know, and you (or someone for you) will have to look at the original ledger books. While his name appears on at least one occasion in the volumes for 1864-73 and 1874-76 with details of ships on which he served as either mate or master, volume 31 doesn't show any voyages recorded. These volumes actually only show foreign voyages notified to Lloyds and there may have been other voyages (particularly those originating from the then colonies) which Lloyds never found out about. Subject to that you may expect to find the names and Official Numbers of the vessels on which he served as master or mate, with the date of appointment and a rough indication of the destination. The colour of the ink, and whether the ship's name is underlined or not, can be significant - underlining usually means an appointment as mate. Many qualified masters served as mates for some years before obtaining a command. These details (particularly the Official Number) may enable you to obtain copies of the crew agreements (and official logs, if they still exist) which will give you more information about the voyages. A good starting point is the Newfoundland website http://www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/searchcombinedcrews.php It may also enable you to look the voyages in question up in Lloyds List (and sometimes other newspaper reports) to get an idea of the itinerary (which you can usually work out from the crew agreement anyway) or there may also be mention of some other event like a death, grounding, or some other item of interest. Having the certificate number enables you to ask the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich (they have email - just google for the Caird Library) whether they have his applications for examination. These should list the vessels on which he served up to the date of the last examination, which would enable you to reconstruct his earlier career by similarly checking Lloyds List and Crew Agreements for the vessels in question. Further guidance here http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/UKMasters.html and here http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/UKMerchantNavyIndex.html . Both need to be updated but are still pretty sound. Cheers Piers -----Original Message----- From: mariners-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:mariners-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Eunice Donovan Sent: 07 August 2011 01:10 To: MARINERS@rootsweb.com Subject: [MAR] Master Mariner details Hi everyone I'm rather a newbie at this, so I apologise in advance for what might be a "dumb" question! I've discovered the following information in the Index to the Captains Registers of Lloyd's of London, about my great-grandfather: DEFRIEZ, William Webb b.London 1838 C22935 London 1864 vol.4 1864-73; vol.18 1874-76; vol.31 no voyages listed I certainly get that he was born in London in 1838 - is the next bit his licence number or something like that? What sort of information is available in the "volumes" listed? I would appreciate any help interpreting the details - thank you! Kind regards Eunice Queensland, Australia ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hello again Eunice,   Since WILLIAM NAIZBY is looking ever more probable for your great-grandfather, here are some more leads. Her Official Number is 47726. That will help you locate records for her e.g. at CLIP: http://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/sourcesRO.php which in turn will lead you to several crew agreements at Memorial University in Newfoundland, of which you can buy copies. You can see samples of the type of information on those by clicking on the thumbnail images here: http://www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/crewlistforms_new.php     And ... your man got his 2nd Mate's certificate (#22935) in London in 1860, so having his Master's certificate by 1864 is pretty quick progress. http://books.google.ca/books?id=feoNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA144&dq=%22William+Webb+Defriez%22&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=true You'll find other editions of the Mercantile Navy List online at: http://collections.mun.ca/   Regards, Adi --- On Sat, 8/6/11, Eunice Donovan <eunice.donovan@bigpond.com> wrote: I've discovered the following information in the Index to the Captains Registers of Lloyd's of London, about my great-grandfather: DEFRIEZ, William Webb b.London 1838 C22935 London 1864 vol.4 1864-73; vol.18 1874-76; vol.31 no voyages listed